Thursday, February 28, 2013

Though I love all creatures great and small, there are some Battle pets that I don't enjoy using. There are a variety of reasons - I don't like their class, I don't like their attacks, I don't like their model (I know, I know, so superficial).

Class I don't like
Of all the classes, the class I LEAST like to use forbattling is Undead. I hardly ever pull any undead pet into my team for a battle - this is because I feel like their attacks are quite weak, and their survivability rather low (L'il KT is probably one of the exceptions - the Frost Nova and Howling Blast combo is quite good). They do have the invulnerability thing, but I've found it can be easily cc'd or avoided and that makes it just about useless.

However, the models of every undead pet are fantastic and unique. I don't think any of them are boring (unlike the beasts) and I like having them out just for show. Crawling Claw, Scourged Whelpling, Fossilized Hatchling and Stitched Pup are some of my favourites. However, the Voodoo undead companions I'm not too crash hot on, even though their models are cool. I guess they're just not my thing, as a Tauren. If I was a troll, they would be a cool companion to have out.

Attacks I don't like
I don't like those ones that increase your crit at a cost to your accuracy, like Adrenal Glands. Inevitably I always miss. I also am not a big fan of suicide bomber attacks, like the Baneling's Baneling Burst. Both of these attacks are in the Baneling's arsenal, though I still like it as a pet.

Models I don't like
I am sure that I am with most people about the number of spiders, rabbits, rats, snakes, and frogs. I mean, I know Blizz doesn't have the time to make a whole heap of new model pets, but really? There are 16 spiders (though there are at least 4 different models) and 22 snakes (with 3 different models). But the one model pet that I find the ugliest is the frog. So blocky, with sharp corners.... it looks awful. Frogs are smooth and slimy....

Tzufit, in her usual engaging manner, stirred my sluggish mind with her post When Everyone's Legendary. And when you read what she's writing, I bet there are a lot of people who think the same.

Remember when something was "legendary"? It was orange, it was ultra rare, it was amazing to see it, people would stop and stare at it. Back in the old days it was a rare drop + a hell of a lot of work - something only raiding guilds would see, not the ordinary player. Those MC drops - Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker and Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, which requires a bit of crafting as well (BLAH to Elementium ore!) - I have to say I saw a lot more of these when MC became more farmable in BC/WotLK. But they were still hard to get.

Then we had the rare drops, the Warglaives of Azzinoth and Thori'dal, The Stars' Fury, which drop from Illidan in Black Temple and Kil'Jaeden in Sunwell Plateau. These days, also farmable if you want to go there every week. But they were cool and rare AT THE TIME. More commonplace now, but they were a badge of pride back in those days, showing hard work and dedication. But still a bit of RNG to get.

Then came Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel, and their legendaries, Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings and Shadowmourne, both of which required 25 mans - which tends to imply a guild raid. Shadowmourne had a series of quests and was the first where it required you to do certain parts of each boss to progress through a series of quests. Moo said it was quite hard. That was quite interesting, and fun to watch at the end.

Then we come to the Cataclysm Legendaries - Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest, which is the Firelands caster staff, which involved multiple steps of a fascinating quest chain and story, which added to the whole Legendary part of it. Then there was Fangs of the Father, the rogue daggers from Dragon Soul - also with its own epic legendary quest chain.

The beauty of the last 4 legendaries is that they were not only personal achievements, but there was a sense of guild achievement too - we got to see the final part of the quest chains when the legendary weapons were handed over (well, not for the rogue one) and feel like we were all part of something, part of the Legendary chain itself. There was a great sense of guild pride, and it was a great honour to be selected to be the person to chosen to receive the legendary that the whole guild was going to help you work towards. Of course, Blizzard helped a lot with Dragonwrath - offering a pet as a reward for all guild members. Fangs of the Father was more solo, I guess because it's rogues and rogues do things in the shadows and on their own. (Hmmm. That sounded a bit dirty.)

(I have not mentioned Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian because I have never seen it and that was TRULY an exclusive high end raider item. That was from old Naxx and doesn't exist anymore! It has passed from being legendary into the realm of legend.... a TRUE legendary)

The Legendary quest chain in Pandaria is different to all of these - and I can see why when you look at the why WoW is evolving. Blizzard is moving away from the guild/friend group focus for doing things - raiding, dungeons, battlegrounds - and more delving into playing with a group of strangers. It would only be natural progression that the Legendary chain would be like that too. Also, with LFR and LFD, EVERYONE can participate in raiding now, not just those who are are in guilds and groups of friends.

Me, personally, I have been a bit meh about the whole legendary chain, since I read about it on MMO Melting Pot. I am up to the collecting valour points part, and I have been lazy with capping valour every week (though, if I cap Valour this week, I will have completed this part of the legendary chain). Tzufit put a video of Syndrome from The Incredibles (what a great movie that is!) and that has triggered a whole heap of analogies in my post...

"...I did it without your precious gifts, your oh-so-special powers. I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics the world has ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that EVERYONE can have powers. EVERYONE can be super! And when everyone's super... no one will be..."

- Syndrome, The Incredibles (2004)

But that movie touched upon that what our society is leaning towards today - where there is a general feeling of unfairness and inequality, and wanting everyone to be rewarded for their efforts. Like kids running in a race - everyone gets a ribbon, not just the winners, so that the losers don't feel like it's unfair.

"But Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of, our powers made us special."
"Everyone's special, Dash."
"Which is another way of saying no one is."

- Helen talking to her son Dash, The Incredibles (2004)

But the question here is: ARE we celebrating mediocrity with everyone getting a Legendary weapon at the end of this quest chain? It's all about gems that upgrade your weapons and there are titbit gem upgrades along the way (as long as you have a Sha-Touched weapon, which seems to be the bottleneck for a lot of people! RNG!!!) There is still a fair bit of effort required to get it, the quest chain is long. That still requires a lot of effort, and not necessarily mediocre effort. And it has a storyline... wait, what is the storyline?? Something to do with Wrathion...

This, perhaps is the clincher, the bit that makes it not feel so legendary for me. I am sure, for most others who did Legendary quest chains (Dragonwrath, Fangs of the Father, Shadowmourne) they can recall the story that went with it. The moment of epicness, of BEING legendary, so that every moment of the legendary was exciting. Am I the only one who feels like the new legendary chain is somehow just an upgraded quest where you can just skim the text to get to the reward?

Or maybe, its because I already have a Legendary weapon. Having another will never be as exciting as my first Legendary - the feeling of having something that very few people will have, and all the hard work and runs I had to get my weapon. Of the immense feeling of gratitude to my friends who helped me get it, and who were there run after run after run.

But what about those who don't have a Legendary already? Perhaps they are very excited to get theirs. Maybe they are hanging onto every part of the quest chain and reading and memorising the text and the story - just because I'm not really into it, doesn't mean everyone is like me.

Perhaps, what bothers me about it, is that though the grinding of it is done on an individual basis, you still require a group to do a lot of it. You need to do LFR to get your sigils. You need at least 3 people to defeat what's-his-face commander. You need to run the 2 new Pandarian battlegrounds. And you can actually sit back and let others do the work for you for these legendaries (ie join a big group and do no heals/DPS etc), and I still feel you should use some sort of personal skill to be worthy of these legendaries. In addition, each part of the legendary is being released with each patch, so you can see that it's going to require you to stick Pandaria out to the end to see the legendary gem that upgrades your weapon to the covetted orange. If I look at it from Blizzard's point of view, this legendary is allowing you to see ALL of the content they have to offer - the raids, the battlegrounds, the dailies and the factions - AND stay for the entire expansion. However, once you get your legendary, it will be YAY ME! And not that feeling of guild pride (Unless the guild has some pact and they all get their legendaries together).

I don't begrudge everyone their legendary. I think perhaps I am just wishing that the legendary FEELING of belonging and group effort would come with it. But there is no point in wishing for things of the past, or of things as they once were. The world is moving forward. World of Warcraft is moving forward. I should not be one of those people talking about the good old days. This is the WoW we play now.

I just want to kill Empress! But it seems that not having the right group is holding us back....

Gutsy was uncontactable, Voe was nowhere, and Bladewind is still not around, so that left us one true healer short for HoF. We even had 2 tanks this time. Sev had mouse issues so he didn't really want to play. Disco (now Soultouched - I think I prefer him as Disco so I am going to refer to him as such) was online because Concur didn't need him to raid that night, so Fue said why don't we run MSV for the new guy.

Excitedly I whispered Disco and said "You wanna raid? We're running MSV for you!" He seemed excited. I told Neri we're taking her husband raiding and she said "What, are you crazy? He just hit 90 on Sunday!" I did tell Disco he was going to be carried though LOL.

Moo wanted to bring his monk (curious, I thought he wanted the valour) but he was keen to get some agi gear for his monk. Well, I told him he would have to get in line because I want first dibs on that stuff before an alt. Luckily I have most things already from MSV. Everyone teased me because I don't tank but HEY that might change now that we have another healer.

Aza sat out and I asked if Sabre could come because he ALWAYS sits out. So the troupe of Raked, Fue, Bish, me, Lushnek, Souglyy, Sabre, Falln and Jadeblossom (Moo's monk) and Disco set off!

We started off a bit messy on the dogs with a wipe and then we got it second go. And the healing belt dropped again! Wouldn't you know, it drops at the end of a patch when I've been trying to get it all 5.1.... Then we did Feng and I just had to quickly tell Disco we run left with the fires (and wouldn't you know, he was the first with the fire), and that was all good. No loot for him yet :(

On to Garajal and when I told him we used a mod, he was pleased because he used that mod too. With 3 healers it was a bit of a yawn fest but towards the end it was getting ugly. Maybe I should have used Ironbark but it was ok in the end. Fist weapon dropped for Moo's monk.

On to Spirit Kings and that was also breezy with 3 heals. Disco said something I had never thought of before. "Do you want me to freedom the person who is pinned with arrows?"

I was surprised. "I didn't know you could do that. Our other PALADIN has never offered to do that before. FUE!!!"

"I didn't know if it would work," said Fueghan.

"Lazy ass paladins," said Lushnek.

I said that only Souglyy gets pinned anyway, and I was right, she was pinned again, and good old Disco cast freedom.... on himself. Well, I guess I still won't know if that works or not.

We got to Elegon and we were worried a little with DPS because we were 3 healing it, but Bish went atonement and helped out with DPS so we got it down reasonably well, but healing in the end was a bit tough! And wouldn't you know it, Moo's sword that he wanted, Starshatter, dropped, and everyone who could use swords already had it, and the healing plate helm dropped too. So Disco walked away with an awesome offspec sword AND a new hat!

We had a yukky first pull of Will of the Emperor - Fue died and I teased Bish and Disco because he was their baby to heal. I was healing Whatsy Raked and he was doing ok. But that fight was a bit punishing on mana and Disco had been hitting mobs to get mana back which was why Fue died. We only had time for one more go, and fortunately we got it down! I used my roll and I got the trinket - though... not sure if I want to swap my Relic of Chi-Ji for Qin-Xi's Polarizing Seal at this stage and I still love my Jade Courtesan Figurine too... so not sure what I will do with this new trinket. Maybe I'll keep it for some mana intensive fight.

But I was happy, Disco seems keen to raid, and I got him buttered up with a crafted plate chest from Moopie too, so hopefully, fingers crossed, my healing blues are over!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

My tanking encounters in LFR have so far been all abysmal. As in, ME tanking, not the tanks I've had in LFR. Paranoid Navi brain and I had a talk about it the other day.

Paranoid Brain: You know, this will be the third LFR where you haven't completed it as a tank.

Navi: Well, it's only two that I didn't complete because the raid fell apart. One of them I completed.

Paranoid Brain: Yes, but only because you switched specs to heals and asked someone else to tank. You didn't finish it AS a tank.

Navi: It doesn't matter. It was for the good of the raid anyway. We got our valour points.

Paranoid Brain: You know what people are going to say don't you. Do you want to know?

Navi: Couldn't be anything I've already said to myself. So you don't need to tell me.

Paranoid Brain: Well, I might tell you anyway.

Navi: I thought you might. Then why do you bother asking me if I want to know because you're going to tell me anyway?

Paranoid Brain: Because I'm trying to give you the illusion of choice. When really, I'm just going to do what I want. So... everyone is going to say that druid tank, gear looks alright but plays like crap. You can't hold agro, you don't know when to taunt... you're lucky nobody votes to kick you from LFR.

Navi: I've learned my lesson. I tell the others that I haven't done it before.

Paranoid Brain: Oh, and you think that will instill confidence in the other raid members? More likely, they will say "This is a fail LFR," and leave.

Navi: Look on the bright side. Those dickheads are the ones I wouldn't want in my raid anyway.

Paranoid Brain: I'm glad you can see the bright side.

Navi: You obviously don't know me very well even though you're in my head. I always look on the bright side.

It's that damn queue role. People are queuing as healers, who are actually caster DPS. I mean, the only ones really guilty of it are the druids and priests (so far all the shamans I've seen who are queued as healers actually ARE healers). The other day, I entered one with 6 druids, all bar one were listed as healers (one was the tank). But, 2 of them were boomkin. Which made healing it really difficult for me, and not to mention DPS was low anyway (maybe people are queueing as heals in heal spec and then DPSing in it? I don't know!). And though I am by no means an awesome make or break the raid healer, I feel like I do much better in an LFR when I'm healing it and not tanking it. I feel a little bit of control.

This isn't me but you get the idea...

So what happened the other day? I queued as tank for the second half of Heart of Fear because I wanted some practice at being in the construct for Ambershaper. I told the other druid tank that I was new to tanking, and he told me what to do. That was ok. But healing us was hard. I'm already not a very well geared tank - as in I am wearing some weird stuff - a mixture of high level gear and some 440 blues (because I pick up all the raid leftovers, and I don't spend any of my points on buying gear) and my gems are a bit funny - they're all agi instead of stam ones - and I am probably a little harder to heal. Anyway, I taunted it off the other tank when he was transformed, and then when I was transformed... nobody DPS'd me out. I ate one pool to stop from dying but then still nobody was getting me out. Then the big monstrosity came and I was freaking out, so I decided it would be faster to die and be rezzed than to wait for these idiots to rez me. And do you know who battle rezzed me? The other tank. While tanking both the big monstrosity and the boss. Of course, we wiped not long after that.

A string of abuse about fail tanks and fail raid came out from people before they left raid, and I was feeling horrible. But, when I think about it now, how else was I supposed to get out of the construct? But, that was my last fail raid queue as tank.

But after that terrible LFR I thought I'd tank a dungeon, and if I wasn't embarrassed before, I was embarrassed now. I was doing Mogu'shan palace and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I seem to get stunned all the time by mobs. Am I supposed to be moving around to avoid something? The paladin and the mage were whinging about my tanking and telling me to Lrn2tank and I just ignored them and kept going. They commented on my gear saying it looks like I've got decent gear but I tank like I'm in greens. Ugh. I was going to say something but I decided against it, and just apologised to the healer for my poor tanking, and that I was mainspec healing and I was just trying to gear up my offspec. The monk sympathised - she was doing the same as well (not in this dungeon obviously) and so I kept my chin up and battled on trying to hit things before the paladin and mage did so at least I would have SOME agro. Reminder to self, I must look up some time how to avoid those stuns. The poor DK died a few times, but the monk healer was kind (they were from the same guild). Anyway, by the end it was better and I felt a little less stupid.

I think though, to save the pain and embarrassment, I should only do dungeons with my friends. I have to admit, I admire all these people who can play solo because I am not sure I could survive doing LFR and LFD with all these strangers - however, it's only about 20% are downright nasty - 20%. The other 50% are indifferent. But you know what would be most embarrassing? Doing a LFR/LFD and someone there knows me/recognises me and they think I'm playing like a totally idiot. Though, if I try hard and know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, then that won't happen. But that comes with practice and to practice I need to do LFR/LFD more... I see a vicious cycle here.

But! I will keep trying tanking. I have respecced and regemmed a bit which has made my dps a bit horrible (bad for dailies) but hopefully a bit better at rage generation (good for LFD/LFR) so.. small steps. Rome wasn't built in one day. Maybe one day, I can be good enough to tank alt runs MSV or something.

My first day pet battling was done on the first day Mists of Pandaria went live. I started out in Pandaria with everyone else, but when I saw all those green paws... and I couldn't battle them, I knew I had to level my pets to get out there.

I started in Orgrimmar, as most people Hordies do, because that is where the trainer was. But which pet to choose? Almost all of the things to battle in Orgrimmar were beasts, so I decided to start with my Clockwork Gnome - a mechanical who was strong against beasts. And he was a star, he would knock those beasts dead!

I wasn't the only one in Org pet battling - it was hard to find even a Dung Beetle or Spiny Lizard so I went outside to go and try to catch some of these things. And I was hooked after the first capture. I remember I knew so little - I caught a rare chicken - it was my first rare - and I named it KFC. I didn't know what rares were back then, I was such a noob!

I remember there was no easy way to tell what a rare was by looking at it. People had macros for it, and there was also a mod for it - it's so much better now they fixed that so you can see what the rarity of the pet is when you battle it.

The levels come so easily at those low levels, and achievements pour in so easily, it wasn't hard to get hooked. I only did toon levelling with Lushnek, so when he wasn't online, I spent my time Pet Battling. I had pets at max level before I myself was max level!

I remember the day I was ready to tackle Pandaria. I had just hit 22 with my Clockwork Gnome (which was named after one of my surgical colleagues who was quite buff - we named it Magic Mancuso) and my Gregarious Grell was also in the early 20s and I set off to start catching and battling all the Pandarian pets on offer. I think my toon was still level 87 (and I had friends who had been 90 for days already) and after that I was happy levelling my toon in Pandaria, now that I could catch everything out there.

Those early days were quite good. Nobody had high level pets then, so once I got to level 18 or so, those zones were mine for the picking. No campers like now. I remember seeing a Minfernal stuck in a tree - and I was so cross I couldn't battle it (I didn't know the interact with object keybind back then) that I killed it. I didn't see a minfernal for ages after that!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I want to hear all about your pet battles! I know you're just dying to tell me! So to all my readers who blog (and even those who don't!) I would love to hear your stories. So I made up a 10 days thing so I can get to know more about your pet battling (and hopefully learn something too!)

(though, what am I doing? It's not like I don't have enough to read already!) Leave a comment to let me know if you're doing it so I can drop by and read about your pet battles :) Or you can leave a comment so I can chat to you!

Day 1: Your first day pet battling.

Day 2: What pets don't you like and why?

Day 3: Who is your favourite pet? If you could bring it out into the real world, tell me what you imagine you would be doing.

Day 4: What was the most epic pet battle/capture you ever had?

Day 5: What pet do you want more than any other pet? What would you do to get it?

Day 6: What pets have you got in your favourite team(s)?

Day 7: Do you use mods? If you could only have one pet mod, what would it be and why?

Day 8: What is the stupidest thing(s) you have ever done in a pet battle?

Day 9: What is your favourite pet ability? If you could have a pet with your favourite abilities, what would they be?

Day 10: Design a pet! What model would your pet have, where would it come from and what abilities would it have?

I will start mine off in the next post :) I wonder if anyone will play?

Raked AND Fue were both having connection issues yesterday, so Fue logged because his latency was so terrible and Raked battled on but it was not working for Empress - and I had even nagged Gutsy to log on so we can have 3 real heals for it as well. We called it halfway through and reset it, and though we only killed ONE boss (Tout showed up miraculously at the time - so I was saved from tanking) it was good because Moopie got his belt from the first boss.

In guild news, Neri and Mr Neri (Disco) joined our guild - Mr Neri has been hanging around in our guild for a little while levelling an alt to see if he likes it or not, and I think he didn't mind, because he moved his Paladin over so he can heal for us. He's been dungeoning like a demon to gear up. I have probably freaked the poor guy out saying how I'm looking forward to see what he can do. Neri brought her priest alt over to keep him company - and she even made a "moving mog" for the occasion.

I am nervous - I hope he likes it here. When I invited his paladin, there was BIZARRE filthy conversation going on in the guild - Moo was in a good mood and was on a roll. Perhaps his good mood made his belt drop in raid.. but anyway, Disco wasn't too fazed, even though I expressed my horror at them scaring the new recruit. I told Disco we'd carry him through MSV for some loot, and he said he would gear up to his best so he would pull his own. Not sure which day we'd do that, but hopefully NOT Wednesday as he is still raiding with Concur then. Wednesday is our usually full roster day anyway, so that's not an issue. Anyway, big welcome to Disco, and hope our healing blues will be over for now. Now about those tanking blues...

Sunday, February 24, 2013

What is this? This is in Elegon's room, in Mogu'shan Vaults, which comes up when you start the fight (ie the door closing). I only noticed it the other day, though I can't recall why I am standing here looking at it if the fight had already started...

... though I do recall what I was thinking when I saw it.

Oh, that's so pretty! How did I not notice that before? If Ancient was here she would tell me off for not taking a picture of it earlier to show her... Must get good pic....

There are supposed to be 3 mogs for Matty's birthday Movie Mogs but I struggle to make more than 2! So happy birthday Matty, I managed to squeeze one more out of my brain... here's the second!

Nasty Colonel Miles Quaritch, the head of security for the human mining expedition on Pandora. I based my mog off this picture (though it's not from the movie itself - it must be a pose or sets pic) but I thought the costume could use a cool weapon.

Blue Linen Vest

Hillman's Belt

Stalking Pants

Saltarello Shoes

Rifle of the Stoic Guardian

Heh, and I put him facing that way so maybe nobody would notice he didn't have the trademark scars on the left side of his head...

I found it rather amusing that I didn't find any rares that were the same type! I should make a trip into the old areas to see all these new rares! But first things first, must screencapture every single Pandaren rare!

Had Lushnek come help me with this one. A lot of adds hanging around!

He has funny actions. He also does some sort of eating or nibbling emote. Hozen! Hilarious!

I was flying to help Falln and Souglyy with their Legendary chain which was a mob in the Alliance area with a lot of health. Saw this on the way over. Took a pic and thought I'd get him on the way back. And what do I find? Raked kills him on the way back and even though we were in the same raid, I was too far to get credit! Damn it!

I find it a bit odd that an undead is a champion of hte light. But I got a good pic of Muerta, when she doesn't have Alliance beating on her. Love those shoulders.

Pandaren are cool, they are always non agressive so I can get nice and close for a good shot.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Kallixta had a brilliant idea - he told me I should review those hard to get pets and compare them to see what they're like against the ones already in game. So I thought I would start with my prized pet, the Mini Tyrael.

The Mini Tyrael is a gift for attending the 2008 Worldwide Invitational held in Paris. It is rumoured that 8000 of these printed. You can get them on Ebay (like I did) or try and win one in various competitions online. He has some really cute idle animations, the best being him dancing with you if you /dance with him. He also goes to sleep on his side, whilst flying. Nawwwwww cute!

Look at me! I'm all holy and shiny!

Mini Tyrael is a humanoid class with all humanoid attacks, which are strong against Dragonkin and weak against Beasts. And, in all honesty, I don't like pets which have attacks which are all strong against the same class.

Oh no, not another beast... Tyrael you SUCK against beast types!

I often team my Mini Tyrael up with my Dark Whelpling or Deathy because I use Call Darkness A LOT. Which is part of the problem. Tyrael can heal, but obviously won't heal much with Call Darkness and its attacks are strong only against dragons and kind of average against the others.

As for levelling - you find that most wild pets are beasts, so levelling against beasts is not particularly great for Mini Tyrael. And there aren't that many dragons out there to battle against.

In Slot 1, you can choose from a single attack which does or a team attack which does a small amount of damage but useful if the primary target is doing some kind of avoidance ability. I also like it if you end up fighting with a creature who uses Call Lightning.

Slot 2 abilities are both stuns. I prefer Surge of Light because it does damage and because I tend to use Darkness it will stun anyway. Lousy against critters, of course.

Slot 3 I tend to choose Holy Charge because with Darkness, Restoration is not a very useful spell. Holy charge does a lot of damage - about 700 or so but is easily avoided because you can see it coming.

So my verdict? It's a better pet for its looks than as a battle pet. I don't find that it performs particularly well against the dragons in the pandarian tamers - it will kill them, but you can't do the Call Darkness - Surge of Light - Holy Charge move because Dragons rarely come as the final pet to fight, and once they get stunned, the computer swaps out for another pet. But it is a beautiful pet to look at with an awesome model and a cute animation.

Friday, February 22, 2013

I was a bit late to raid - it was my daughter's birthday today and the kids stayed up a bit late eating cake... yum!

Raked wasn't on tonight so it was off to MSV. I only wanted the first boss, so I asked Lushnek to log me or play me so I could get the belt. Lucky he did because it dropped! AND Roshii got his daggers on a roll!

Falln was still learning and he was doing great. I was going to tease him about tanking like a noob, but it seems like it's been a while since I did MSV so I felt like I was healing like a noob! Fortunately everything went quite well. Hwired joined us on his shadow priest and was there picking up gear - it was nice having him in the raid again. I even gave him symbiosis once and he tranq'd - at a time I didn't think we needed it, but then I forgot to give it to him later for Garajal when we MIGHT need it!

We got to Garajal and Roshii asked if we could do the achievement. YAY! And you know what? All this time, I had it all wrong in my head! You just have to channel the thing inside the totem zone for 30 seconds combined, and I thought that Lush and I had to click it at the same time. It turns out that it's combined channelling time no matter what time you start clicking, so one of those other times we attempted it, we could have done it. But never mind, the achievement is done now!

Then we went to Spirit Kings,and that achievement was quite easy too! All you had to do was stand in pillage from Subetai the Swift, and the debuff lasts 15 seconds. Then everyone had to dance with him, with the debuff. This achievement is named after the Nelly Song.. "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes..." because having pillaged debuff decreases your armour by 50%...

Then onto Elegon which went down nicely. I think Fue is picking on me because he put squishy tank Falln, with Hwired on his undergeared Shadowpriest on my side :P We also had a look at the Will of the Emperor Achievement - woah, I have no idea how to do the dance! Might leave that for another time! Besides, we were running short on time anyway.

Lushnek picked up a mainspec and offspec trinket - yay! And I got an offspec cloak. So, that was a really nice, rejuvenating raid. It's so good to break up the constant wiping on a fun raid with cool stuff - I don't know if secretly my guildies were trying to cheer me up (I doubt it, but I can pretend, it makes it nicer that way!) from my raiding blues, but it certainly did the trick! I think I am ready for another 20 wipes on Empress!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

This healer shortage is a real struggle. I can't believe that 3 of our healers are no longer raiding. I mean, it's not just us, lots of guilds are having this same problem I'm sure. It's just me and Bish and poor Lushnek is offspec healing. His gear is not bad but healing is not his thing, and he doesn't really love it, so it's not quite the same as having a mainspec healer. We extended the raid and we're going at Empress - last week we had 4 healers and now we're at 2 and 3/4 healers (though Lush keeps putting his healing down, it's not that bad). I just feel BLAH about it all.

A plague of connection problems affected Fue (as well as some weird keyboard problem that made him walk backwards and his Push to talk was on permanently so we could hear everything), as well as Raked and Souglyy. I thought we were doing ok when things were all nice and connected, but I guess we're back to square 1 again. I had a few deaths from explosions ugh!

WTB HEALERS!

In other news, today I got a whisper from some called Quesdemonque from Deaths Finest. He wanted to talk to Fue, about a merger between our guilds. I offered to help him, but he wanted to talk to Fue. I know his guild, it's a PvP guild on our server. Execute went there. Anyway, what he wanted was to merge our guilds. I was a bit skeptical at first, but he said he wanted to lead RBGs and have more people to play with in RBG, but specifically they wanted High Warlord Azadelta. I was quite excited by the idea of a whole bunch of PvPers joining our guild - not only could we do rated BGs, but we could use a few to backfill our own raids! Ques talked about how most of the guilds are collapsing and soon there would be only 4 big horde guilds left on the server, as The Empire was transferring off server. I said that we were unlikely to collapse because our guild is old and made up of a core group of people who are all now friends. I hope I wasn't wrong when I said that! But I asked Fue later and he thought it was an alright idea. I wonder if they will really come?

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Don't get me wrong, I love raiding. I love logging in to play with my friends so we can wipe some more on new bosses! And of course, I like shiny loots too, and new boss kills, or even old boss kills with funny incidents occurring that make me cackle like a hyena (lucky I'm not pressing push to talk). I love examining my heals to see how bad I was at keeping harmony up. I like laughing with Bish about those silly DPSers who annoy me and see how long they last when I don't heal them.

But 4 days is a lot. People wonder where I find time to do all those things in WoW - but I don't! Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Monday are raid days, and Friday is my PvP day. I can't get on WoW before the kids go to bed unless it's the weekend (and then I have guilt because I shouldn't be teaching them how to do my Darkmoon Faire Carnival dailies or making them run around looking for pets that I don't have rares of). I haven't had time to run dungeons or do LFR to max justice points each week. I hardly get to plant my vegies. The only thing I try to do actively is my pet battles, because I like them, but even now I don't feel like doing my tamers anymore! I do still stop to battle every pet I don't have a rare of though.

Dominance Offensive is still on my list of things to do before 5.2. And max my last cooking - if I put more effort into it I would have been done by now. And I would like to relax and fish more so I can get my Nat Pagle reputation up - I was happy to see that the fish also drop from pools and not from just outside pools so I can justify trying to do the rep whilst doing some useful fishing.

I am half wishing we went back to 2 raid groups again. I liked having 3 days of raiding and other days to do my own thing. I can hear people saying "Nobody is FORCING you to raid!" but how can I justify not raiding when everyone wants to go and we are short of healers? There are only 2 regular healers turning up to raid, and with Bladewind (understandably) wanting to spend more time with his young baby, and Gutsy having jack of Pandaria, that doesn't leave many options to sit out. I think if we went back to 2 raid groups I would choose the group that raided 2-3 days instead. That would give me enough time to do all those other things in WoW that I would like to achieve!

Part of the other reason is my morning routine is a little different now, with making sure people eat their breakfasts and have lunch packed for school. Last year it was easier - hubby was home on Tuesdays and kids went to a nanny on Wednesday/Thursday so if we were needing to be away early, they could eat breakfast there. Now I have to ensure everyone is fed and toileted before daycare/school and bags are packed ... sounds just like any other parent with school aged kids, I suppose. But I used to have an extra half hour in the morning when I got up, but now I don't have that time anymore (that was my planting time). I used to see Ayelena, Saunder, sometimes Roshii and some of the Americans at that early hour of the morning - even Saund said he hadn't seen me early in the morning for a while.

Yes we look cute but we're not eating our breakfast either!

I guess, as I settle into this new routine, my WoW time will settle as well. But I have to break out of this bad habit of finding extra WoW time AFTER raiding. Going to bed at those crazy hours surely can't be good for me in the long run (though I have been doing that for a while now). However, being busted by Slice at 3am doing rated BGs MIGHT be pushing the boundaries JUST a little...

Monday, February 18, 2013

Tonight we got to see phase 3 for the first time (though I don't think I had any mana left). Healing was a bit iffy at the beginning (ie we hadn't sorted out who was healing which tank) and then we had to juggle a bit to get which priest with with druid for the tanks (me and Bish tend to have more mana than Lush and Gutsy). Had a bit of flak from the DPS for us healers sucking at healing, which made my hackles rise a little, but I calmed down after a bit.

DPS was tight and Lush switched to Heart of the Wild and that was enough to get us the DPS we needed. I really need mana for that third phase though. I think I went into it with 0 mana.. gulp.

I think it was the first time I saw the big crystal for trapping. And so that was good, because I got to see the big adds trapped in the crystal. I was a bit spazz about being the target (red lined) for an add last time, but this time it wasn't so bad and I even managed to dump my amber stuff in the right place - phew!

I don't know if others do it with 4 heals but it's going ok with 4 heals, though the DPS probably feel like they could have a little extra with them. Slice told me they did it with 3 heals but they had a paladin - it would be awesome with a paladin beaconing one tank and healing the other for adds phase!

But I think overall, everyone was pleased. I certainly was. I look forward to seeing how far we get it tomorrow. I hope we can get it down before patch :)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I love my Vanity pets but I have given one particular pet to as many good homes as I could, as well as filled up my own pet slots and all my friends' pet slots. You can probably guess which pet that is...

... the Imperial Silkworm.

Now when I open my Silkworm Cocoon I feel sad when I see yet another Imperial Silkworm in there. I vendored one and I felt so terrible that I haven't done it again. Poor little Silkworm, nobody to care about it!

I guess, one good thing, at least if I start on a new server, I can always pull one of these out and vendor them there for a 12 silver to get ahead. At least that I can live with, even if I have to look at their sad little face from the vendor as they go into the nether of unwanted vanity pets.

Too bad I can't keep some in my bags and set them to work so I could get a few more Imperial Silk.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Zazzy is one well dressed chick. She really loves to transmog and on her blog, Zazzy Mogs, she writes everything like a comic strip, making it not only something with pretty clothes, it's a fun read too! She is such a frequent visitor to my blog (and she is very friendly to me on Twitter too - retweeting my stuff) that I thought I would try my hand at this comic thing as a tribute to her when I was trying to Navispam her.

Zazzy Mogs is one of two blogs written by Zazzy/Lorelei. Zazzy Mogs tends to deal mostly with costumes, whereas her other blog, Pixel Lives of Lorelei, deals with all that other stuff (though today, it seems to have vanished!). Each of her blogs has its own personality and Pixel Lives is a little more like my blog - bits of everything :) Her latest post on Zazzymogs, she had done Matty's Movie transmog, and her Lord of the Rings outfits looked really cool. I wanted to tell her that in person.

I was lucky to be able to track down one of her alts, Tiny, to take a picture with me! Unfortunately, the bad thing was that it was one of those days where the kids were just being BAD early in the morning and there were lots of AFKs to mediate who-hit-who, taking someone to the toilet, or cleaning up spilt food on the floor. And I also had to head out shortly so I was in a bit of a rush, and I had to go out in 10 minutes as well to get to the shops.

Zazzy knew I was looking for her - I had given her a heads up because I had asked one of her guildies about her - so she wasn't too surprised to see me though. I only had a few minutes to grab a picture with her before I had to pack people up to go out.

OMG Zazzy, there you are! And woot I get to see your new Sea Pony too!

Tiny: I'm a bit tired, do I look OK here?
Navimie: Pfft, you look gorgeous! How can anyone not look good in Tier 5?

Zazzy kindly kept despatching all the fierce creatures that kept trying to waylay me. I told her how I love her Zazzy comics and I chatted a little about her latest posts, and I kept apologising to her for having to leave so early. Hopefully I can visit again and talk longer. I wanted to see the Sea Pony she had been talking about so I did get a picture of that at least :) So thank you Zazzy! I hope one day I can catch you again.

Friday, February 15, 2013

I thought the answer was easy. But it turns out it's a little more complicated than I thought.

Primarily, I like to read about World of Warcraft. So I'm reading about blogs that talk about things in World of Warcraft. That was my first thought.

I like looking for information on things. Which is why I frequent Jasyla's blog so often, because, as a resto druid, she writes guides and information that is invaluable to the raiding resto druid.

However...

I started to look at the blog sites I frequent the most, and they tend to be the ones who talk about the general goings on within the World of Warcraft. They are almost like reading Facebook, which are bits of everything, and nosing around about what people are doing in their day to day - be that killing raid bosses, finding or taming a new rare, making a new transmog, or talking about some random thoughts in regards to some game mechanic. Often, the blogs I read have ALL of those things mixed in.

Jasyla was interested to see what sorts of people were reading her blog, and what kind of information they were seeking from her. And, though I answered it honestly, I was a little worried - though I do love reading the resto druid things in her blog, I also love to read the other things as well. Would she stop having those based on the poll outcomes? So, no more guild leadership things? No more shenanigans in game?

Reading what other people are doing, normalises what I do in game. Knowing that there are people out there, doing what I do, makes me feel like I'm just like everyone else, and I fit in. Of course, there are those doing things out there which I find amazing, which I enjoy reading because it gives me something to aspire to, something sort of goal that I could try for. OK, maybe some of those goals are a bit beyond me (eg High warlord or Insane) but it is fun to read about it, and what could have been.

And I realised, that for me, reading blogs is not just about the information. I have an insatiable curiosity, to know more about the people behind the blog. Which is why I like to Navispam and reply all comments on my blog. I want to know more about the people I'm reading and whom are reading me, because we are all human, and we all have a small connection - we all play World of Warcraft. Whether they choose to share themselves with me, of course is another story. There are many I read whom have become game friends, and sure, if I stopped playing the game, we may lose touch, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy spending time with them NOW.

But why, you ask, do I need to be so nosy? Why must I know? What if they don't want people to know? Of course, that's ok! But I think people in general like to be treated like a person, and not like a number, or a player or a disease. For example, is it not a common complaint from patients is that their doctors are impersonal, or treat them like a number or a disease, rather than a person? I think most patients like to be treated like a human being, who have a family, have interests, have preferences and special considerations. My relationship with my patients is only brief, but I do try to call them by name and their condition (eg. Mrs Smith who is here for an appendicectomy) to maintain a bit of humanity about the patient. So, is it so different, that I try to do the same for people in the game? Readers? Players? I am sure many of them like to be treated as humans too! Isn't it much nicer, if your local doctor knew a bit about you when you visited, since you see them so often - about your family, major events, and your interests, even just a little bit?

So you see, the answer to why I read, turned out to be a lot longer than just... knowledge.

Do one thing. Do it well. (Don’t write a smattering of garbage nobody reads…unlike a certain other blog I could name. *ahem*)

I felt a bit embarrrassed. He could be talking about me - I write about all sorts of everything! Which comes to the question - why do I write?

At least this, is an easy answer. My blog is a diary, a chronicle. As I age, I like to write down all those memories and moments - awesome moments get lost and fade with time, and so do the emotion that went with them. Each new find, each gift, each discovery, each new friend - every one of these things, TO ME, deserves to be preserved, and be remembered. Because I love to remember what a wonderful time I had, when I was playing World of Warcraft.

I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I wanted to do for Matty's Movie Mogs, and I'm not very good at this. I looked at all my friends' ones and thought how great they all were. But then I had an idea for one!

Ney'tiri is so awesome :) And who better as a blue skinned humanoid with a tail than a draenei? And of course, the irony... Navi making a Na'vi? :D

Feathered Headdress

Warbear Harness

Clutches of Dying Hope

Skulldugger's Leggings

Honorable Longbow

I know, I know, technically you can't do this. It's not really a mog. I'm wearing leather and using a bow. But I started making something with Navi, and then I thought it won't look right unless I have a bow. So think of it more like... a fantasy costume. But as a costume or RP it works! You can wear it if you are a hunter but not transmog it - well you could but what's the point of wearing leather? But at least I got to join in the birthday fun! So yay, I managed to do something after all! I'm not as stupid as I thought I was!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Fue decided to extend the raid - yay! So that meant we could work on Ambershaper. I was a little worried because we didn't have 3 full healers and I was worried about healing, but Lushnek seemed to have clicked with healing and did an amazing job this time! He healed the same as me! Bish, of course, kicked our asses as disc.

It was going a lot better, we were getting the phases down nicely, controlling our explosions and even though the kill wasn't clean, and only Raked was alive at the end, it was pretty cool. And the items that dropped were totally droolworthy! Tier legs and a spirit ring! Roshii got legs and I got the ring and we had to roll for it because DKP hasn't been updated in forever. Raked won the pants and Bish won the ring, but Raked gave it to Rosh and Bish gave it to me. Awwww, so nice!

We spent the rest of the evening on Empress. I was a bit tired, so I didn't quite follow and I hadn't watched the video. The funny thing, I have done it on LFR but have no idea what is going on!

So in layman's terms, the yellow swirlies blow up doing lots of damage to everyone. Run in there when you have the debuff and when you're inside and casting it sucks up your energy until it explodes. You can't get healed while you stand in the yellow swirly.

So then in phase 2, she runs away and adds come and they pack a wallop! But tomorrow I swear I will watch the video and come more prepared.

Good work Frostwolves! Hopefully we can get through this bit before 5.2!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

I have been really busy each day trying to write a line or two for each person who left me a message on my blog birthday - I did promise I would pen a verse or two! So too bad if you hate poetry, Navi serenaded you with words anyway! I sent most of these out to people and I will fix the links to the posts where they put it, but here is every poem I wrote for all my friends. Thanks guys!Kamalia
Kamalia has so many alts
Their names all start with K
They're all dressed up with gorgeous mogs
It takes one's breath away.

She's also handy with a brush
Her artwork is divine
They're all so good! It's hard to chooseThis one's a fave of mine.

Stoppable Force

There's Zulfon, the unholy knight

'Twas born a Darkspear troll

He yearned to be a crazy loon

The biggest nut of all.

With help from Gako, grind he did

Pirates and gobins slain

It's all paid off coz now he is

Great Zulfon the Insane.

Murglesnout

I pondered on this choice of name

This toon who lurked a year

Of all the catalcysm fish

With these I'd shed a tear.

Vendor fodder, 'til Four-oh-six

Blizz made a recipe

So I'd cook it o'er a warm fire

Then vendor THAT in glee.

Antler Girl

That Bloody Sil confuses me

Is her hair really blue?

I always thought her hair was blonde

The Dutchie showing through.

How little does she realise

The power of her voice

D'you think she knows she makes 'em swoon?

Sexy accents are CHOICE!

Tyledres
Tyledres is my hero coz
She solos Razorgore
She even wrote a handy guide
So everyone can score!

I hope she gets her undead cat
And raid pets drop real soon.
I tried to help her out but she's
An honest kind of toon.